The phone rang in the meeting with the CEO. He said, “Sorry, I can’t talk now. I am in a meeting with my new VP of Engineering and he’s a rock star.”
The title “rock star” can mean different things. To this CEO it meant he finally had someone he could rely on to get the software product developed. The CEO had fumbled badly spending over $50,000 with a local web design firm with little to show for it.
The title “rock star” can mean different things. To this CEO it meant he finally had someone he could rely on to get the software product developed. The CEO had fumbled badly spending over $50,000 with a local web design firm with little to show for it.
Now he had hope.
A non-technical or business-oriented CEO must hire a competent VP of Engineering to take responsibility for on-time delivery of a high quality product. But what kind of person should our CEO hire? Should the VP be hands-on and contributing to the code? Or should the VP be a people manager and stay above the details of the daily builds?
Either way, you want to hire a rock star. But what is a rock star VP of Engineering?
Rock Star as a Technical Achiever. The CEO of a startup I spoke to recently wanted to hire a VP of Engineering to jump in and start doing hands-on work with Microsoft .NET. His rock star will have his or her own MSDN subscription and personally built several ASP.NET web applications.
Rock Star as a Mature Leader. Another company already had 20 software developers (and a small outsourced QA team in South America) all lead by a young but very smart programmer. He worked directly with his team to create the software.
The CEO wanted to add an experienced VP of Engineering that could harness the existing technical leadership and get some control over the software development process. With business growing, the programming team could increase to 40 people.
His rock star will be able to impose a predictable process, command the respect of a strong technical team while hiring more programmers.
Rock Star as a Global Leader. Some companies will have no internal programmers and rely completely on their offshore software development team. One Accelerance client had their own development team in Ukraine. It was a remnant of an outsourcing arrangement gone bad, which is another story.
But things were still not going smoothly. The CEO needs a rock star leader that keep a global team productive and can hop on a plane to Kiev once in a while to do so. A technical achiever with little concern for cultural issues, or a technical leader that is a good face-to-face manager will not manage a global software development team well.
It is important to understand your situation and hire a full time VPE rock star with the kind of experience that will meet your needs.
But there is an alternative.
The Part Time Rock Star. Instead of putting all your eggs in one basket with a full time VPE, a CEO can hire a part time or interim VP of Engineering to get things started. Part of the interim VP of Engineering role is to find their own replacement.
The CEO benefits by moving the programming work forward and extra experienced help with the recruiting process for a full time VP of Engineering. Otherwise a great deal of time and money can be wasted waiting for the right person to come along, or worse, if the wrong type of VPE is hired for the situation.
On the flip side, if you are looking for a full time VP of Engineering job then decide what kind of “rock star” you are. Consider only the kind of opportunities for which you are a fit. Don’t feel bad if a prospective employer is looking for a rock star of a different stripe. Focus on what you do best and the right job will come along.
But the economy being what it is, consider offering to be a part time VPE if you can’t close a full time opportunity with an employer that looks like a good fit. Working part time is a good way to get some cash flow and for both you and the employer to get started on a trial basis.
Be a part time rock star until a full time gig comes along.
Either way, you want to hire a rock star. But what is a rock star VP of Engineering?
Rock Star as a Technical Achiever. The CEO of a startup I spoke to recently wanted to hire a VP of Engineering to jump in and start doing hands-on work with Microsoft .NET. His rock star will have his or her own MSDN subscription and personally built several ASP.NET web applications.
Rock Star as a Mature Leader. Another company already had 20 software developers (and a small outsourced QA team in South America) all lead by a young but very smart programmer. He worked directly with his team to create the software.
The CEO wanted to add an experienced VP of Engineering that could harness the existing technical leadership and get some control over the software development process. With business growing, the programming team could increase to 40 people.
His rock star will be able to impose a predictable process, command the respect of a strong technical team while hiring more programmers.
Rock Star as a Global Leader. Some companies will have no internal programmers and rely completely on their offshore software development team. One Accelerance client had their own development team in Ukraine. It was a remnant of an outsourcing arrangement gone bad, which is another story.
But things were still not going smoothly. The CEO needs a rock star leader that keep a global team productive and can hop on a plane to Kiev once in a while to do so. A technical achiever with little concern for cultural issues, or a technical leader that is a good face-to-face manager will not manage a global software development team well.
It is important to understand your situation and hire a full time VPE rock star with the kind of experience that will meet your needs.
But there is an alternative.
The Part Time Rock Star. Instead of putting all your eggs in one basket with a full time VPE, a CEO can hire a part time or interim VP of Engineering to get things started. Part of the interim VP of Engineering role is to find their own replacement.
The CEO benefits by moving the programming work forward and extra experienced help with the recruiting process for a full time VP of Engineering. Otherwise a great deal of time and money can be wasted waiting for the right person to come along, or worse, if the wrong type of VPE is hired for the situation.
On the flip side, if you are looking for a full time VP of Engineering job then decide what kind of “rock star” you are. Consider only the kind of opportunities for which you are a fit. Don’t feel bad if a prospective employer is looking for a rock star of a different stripe. Focus on what you do best and the right job will come along.
But the economy being what it is, consider offering to be a part time VPE if you can’t close a full time opportunity with an employer that looks like a good fit. Working part time is a good way to get some cash flow and for both you and the employer to get started on a trial basis.
Be a part time rock star until a full time gig comes along.
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Steve Mezak, CEO of Accelerance, Inc. and author of the book, Software without Borders, is a global software development rock star. Use his free online World Region Outsourcing Guide containing the contact information for 40+ hand-selected and pre-qualified software development partners in over a dozen countries around the world. http://www.Accelerance.com
2 comments:
Very good article Steve.
I believe that in last few years due to global competition and the shrinking economy the definition of "rock star" has changed. Expectations of CEOs are very high and they want their rock starts to do pretty much everything. They want their technical leaders to be technical enough to lead highly skilled work force as well as organized enough to put some processes in place, which I believe is a good thing. I personally feel that the experience of technology (do not need to know internals of every software language on the earth), business and software processes is a deadly combination.
Just like software teams, leaders need to be agile too and the one who can adapt to change quickly and easily is a clear winner.
Steve - great article and some very good points. However, I would add one more. A CEO wants a VPE that can play as part of a team of rock star senior managers. VPE is not a singular role - it's a piece of an ensemble that will guide and help make the company successful.
It takes more than a technically superior product to win in most markets and the rockstar VPE needs to engage with his peers in sales, marketing, services, etc and work with them to deliver a product that is aligned with how the company is selling, marketing and supporting it.
If he can do this successfully and learn to consult with his peers, he will be able to address problems or challenges with an open mind and make the right decision for the company (which will sometimes goes against his technical upbringing as an engineer).
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